Tropical Storm Noel came and went, and (gracias a Dios) La Joya survived quite nicely. Many people in other communities did not – the South was hit hard, as well as many nearby communities close to rivers that swelled fuller than anybody can ever remember seeing them, swallowing houses and sometimes whole families at a time. All that happened here: no power for four days. It was sort of like a blizzard, where all you can do is stay in your house and play games, talk, read. I had never seen so much rain at once. From Sunday night until almost Wednesday night, the rain was nonstop, sometimes with a little break of drizzling in between the downpours, but always, always constant. I knew something was different when I woke up wet Sunday night from a new leak that had sprung right over my bed, in my normally non-leaking roof! Then it came out on the radio and by word of mouth of neighbors and friends that class was cancelled nationwide, that we were in the midst of an unexpectedly strong tropical storm. Now as the country deals with the aftermath, it’s interesting to see the stories of hope and the others of corruption. Many nations, groups, and families are contributing much to the rebuilding of these lives of the damnificados, or the affected, and just as quickly many politicians are siphoning away money and resources to their own families and political campaigns. How can this exist so blatantly, with everyone talking about it? But the corruption is there. And that amidst families who really were completely destroyed by the havoc this storm wreaked on them and their families. Still some parts of the South are incommunicable by vehicles. The rebuilding continues. On a lighter note, my nearby city of San Francisco de Macorís hosted a big race Sunday afternoon, the first of its kind here in San Fran. It was (I think) a 15K for the women, youth, and old, and a 32K for the open category – the young men of the bunch who had been training for a long time. The men dominated the day completely, with barely a girl to be found in the crowd, the runners, or the judges. I figured it would be cloudy since it was raining hard when my running partner and I left at 2:30, but the sun came out, and by race time around 3:30 was hot and blazing as ever. It pounded the asphalt and the runners in the hot afternoon without relief. I had to participate, however, since the race ran right by my community; in fact, for my category, it was the turnaround point. Which meant almost the entire race, there were people cheering for me by name! I ended up winning the women’s category, and right away when I crossed the finish line and was about to fall down, a guy stuck a microphone in my face to interview me. All I could get out at the time was a “momento” to give me time to cool down. And even with two different interviews beforehand, they all made me talk during the prize ceremony about the great qualities of San Franciscans etc. – I went blank and had nothing to say, and probably looked like a complete idiot. Who knew I would become a winner in this country?

Happy birthday to our computer lab, which as of September 16 has been open successfully for a year of classes and other services to the community. ¡Felicidades! Our new round of classes has begun, at the same time that a group of high school boys has been painting the high school with the paint donated by the Secretary of Ed. It makes for an interesting combination of (semi)serious class and the rowdy boys outside who come dashing in to see if we can put on some music… preferably reggaetón (think Daddy Yankee). My bike that sits outside has never given so many vueltas (circles) or popped so many wheelies in its existence. Thank you, painters! I joined their ranks last Friday to help them out on a free day in the lab, and we got the lab painted a sickening combination of a sort of lime green on the bottom half and a light green on top. Of course I exclaimed later how beautiful it was… and it does look cleaner, at least! I was the only female painter. Apparently in this country painting is a male occupation, not to be invaded by the ranks of the opposite sex. Why? It’s not exactly work that’s pesado (heavy). But every girl that stopped by that I invited to help paint looked at me like I was crazy and exclaimed that they weren’t going to do it!

This past week has brought with it a rash of random deaths in our community. It’s really interesting how there will be long periods of time in which nobody passes away, and then all of a sudden there will be a week or two in which there are many natural and unnatural deaths together. My neighbors commented that it’s caliente (hot) right now for dying. I agree! In the group of deaths that have happened recently, it has included muertes (deaths) from old age, a freak accident involving electrocution while cleaning fish in the middle of the night, a couple of crashes on the highway (pretty gruesome, actually), and a few by fights or unexplained violence. While discussing the phenomena of hit and runs here in this country, everyone here is a proponent of it. The reason: if the driver stops to apologize to the family or bystanders and see what happens, those same bystanders or family members will, almost without question, in turn kill that driver. Perhaps we need to see some changes in the judicial system so the people don’t feel such a strong need to take the law in their own hands – one of the many changes this country could afford to make.

My English class had a fun surprise the other week when we received our first group of pen pal letters from my friend Megan’s middle school Spanish class. Unfortunately the excitement did not motivate my students to get their own letters done quickly, and I have had to hassle them now for more than two weeks to get them finished! Also since nobody here really uses the postal system, when deciding what to send them (like the Pixy Stix they sent us), everyone was suggesting rather large or heavy items. Multiply that by 30 and you have quite the expensive package to mail! I think I convinced them to settle on some typical juice mix of GuanábanaYa… that is, if I ever get all the letters in.

It’s school time in the Dominican Republic! A few weeks ago the secretary of ed announced that school this year was going to start August 20, even though it always begins in September. That being said, today is August 29, and the streets are still full of kids playing, the classrooms are empty, and the elementary school is being painted. Parents are indignant that anyone would even suggest going back early… and I agree: no justification was given for the early start to classes, even if one exists. Looks like summer will last just a little longer for us in the land of perpetual summer.

The other day before my run I went to put on my running shorts that were hanging up, dry from the sweaty run a couple days before. I was about to put my first foot in when out falls a scorpion on the ground. I only screamed a little then stomped the poor thing out into oblivion before it bit me. RIP running-partner-that-never-was scorpion.

Cajuíl my kitty recovered well from my trip home (I think because the 8-year-old neighbor taking care of her poured LOTS of food into her dish each day – thanks Eddy) but now is behaving a little scandalously. Yesterday morning she did not wake me up crying outside my bedroom door; instead she slunk in late at 7:30, creeping in quietly. I asked her where she’d spent the night, and then saw her boyfriend behind her, following from a distance. A big ugly white cat: what bad taste has my Cajuíl. At least he was walking her home, I suppose. Needless to say, Cajuíl and I had a little talk afterwards about her bad behavior, and how much the neighbors are going to talk. I think it was to little avail, however, because she invited the novio (boyfriend) over to my house last night. Lesson learned: have the doctor fix your cat properly to not only not have kittens, but to also NOT go through heat! I could have used that advice last November.

Here we are in our consolidation points, awaiting Hurricane Dean to come hit the southern part of the island. Supposedly up here where I am they are only expecting rain and wind. I think they wanted to consolidate my region because it includes so much coastal area, and they probably wanted to get everyone away from the ocean... I am just hoping that it doesn't cause too much damage to the southern part of the country, which is the poorest of the poor areas here, and am keeping Jamaica in my prayers since it looks like Dean is just going to blast right over their island.

Now for camp news. Our camp in La Joya (Campamento Aventura) went wonderfully, and the best part of the week were a couple visitors. Angela, another volunteer, came to teach swing dance, which was a huge hit. Possibly almost as big as when we did the Macarena 5 times in a row on the last day of camp because of how much everyone loved the classic we revisited that day. And the clown did come from the capital to do all of his clowning around, which the kids absolutely loved. I think it was probably the first time in all of their lives they'd ever seen a clown or people walking on stilts. I think I was the luckiest, because after camp that Tuesday in my house, I got to use the stilts and learned a bit how to walk on them. The clown even offered to make me a pair of my own, and I'm very tempted to take him up on that.

We just finished the diversity camp for our region as well that I took 3 kids from my campo to, and thanks to all who donated to make that camp possible! It was a huge hit that included all sorts of speakers (from Hatians to Japanese who did judo to Hare Krishnas who sang and played their instruments to a group doing a traditional and very risqué dance that we all learned afterwards), icebreakers and games, and the fun nighttime activities (that was what I was in charge of).

I'm off to practice swing dancing a stilt walking. Who knows what may come next with a past month like this.

Summer is flying by, and all I can think about are a couple things: next week's camp that will be a (better) repeat of last year's camp in our campo, and my vacation for the first time home to the US the next week after that. My goal is to see lots of people, stick my face to the tap to drink the water straight from the faucet, and eat mountains of shaved ice. It's always good to set goals before a trip, right?

Our half marathon was a couple Saturdays ago, and only four of us volunteers ran in it along with the many many other runners from here and other countries, and with a total of one cheerleader/fan for us (who was my friend Erin visiting us, so it was a forced situation... but thanks, Erin!). Tri finished faster than any of us, and then I came in at 2 hours and 3 minutes. It seems slow when you figure out the minutes per mile, but I sure felt like I was going as fast as I could, especially in the last three kilometers! At the finish line they hand you a bag with water, a couple little cakes, and an open beer: mine ended up being a gift to an unsuspecting bystander who enjoyed a lot more than I was about to. There were also fireworks after the race that were shot off from dangerously close by, which only increased the sense of excitement. All in all a very good hot humid rainy fun afternoon race.

Erin visited for about 2 weeks, and aside from her getting sick for about 5 days with fever, body aches, and diarrhea, we had a fun time. Exploring a new beach in the South that was beautiful and sort of Jurrasic Park movie-ish complete with buckets of mangos and plenty of my favorite fruit -- guanábana. We stayed in an inexpensive house on the top of a hill on a cliff looking over the ocean (pictures to be updated soon!) and spent our days at the rocky beach where the river empties into the sea. We had a few adventures while Erin was at my home as well, teaching her merengue and bachata (which she found boring) at a teacher party, going to a funeral prayer hour, and being whisked off to a river by my friends driving by. Now it's time for me to get back to reality and have a productive two weeks before vacation home! The biggest question facing me right now: do we invite my clown friend on stilts from the capital to the camp, or is he too expensive?

Dilemma of the week: my neighbors called me over yesterday afternoon when I arrived. The three year old Tito proudly announced to me, “Mommy wants to give you a TV; come and see it!” as he took my hand and led me into their house. And there was the mother, and the television, both sitting there looking at me. They say they want to give it to me to embullarme, or to entertain myself. I suspect they’re worried about me on those nights that I don’t go anywhere and stay in the house reading, as that would appear more of a punishment than entertainment to most of my neighbors! I pointed out that there may be other people who need one more than me… that if I want to watch any program I can easily go to a neighbor’s house… that I never really watch TV anyway… but all to no avail. They are set on giving it to me. They are even bringing me an antenna for the slight reception we get here in the campo. I have a feeling there may be underlying motives of moving it from their house they don’t live in (the family pretty much lives at the grandparents’ house) so it doesn’t get stolen. So in addition to my protests that I vocalized, I now also have to think about having an antenna visible to all, perhaps making my house more vulnerable to break-ins if I’m ever out of town. I think, though, that I really have to accept it, if I don’t want to hurt their feelings. Oh, this is not what came to mind when I thought of Peace Corps! The other weekend was committee weekend in the capital, and our one-year teeth and health check-ups. We happened to find out that there was a race going on Saturday afternoon around the botanical gardens, and got a group together to run in/cheer on the 12K. There weren’t a whole lot of people, but the people that were there were in great shape! It was a hot afternoon, and at the beginning they announced that any atajos (shortcuts) were encouraged, as long as you stayed outside the fence of the gardens. I ended up winning our women’s age category and Jenny also placed, so we were given medals and beer, which we promptly shared with all our friends in the taxi going back to the hostel. It has been raining every single day here in May, which really makes me and most of the population of my campo want to do… nothing! This especially applies to cleaning the house (for me) and going to class (for the students). In spite of this, my kids have decided to put out a sort of yearbook by the end of the month for the high school, so hopefully everyone stays motivated and it works out.

Picture the scene a couple nights ago: Becky on her bed reading by the light of her gas lamp. Everything is calm and tranquil. Then the power comes back. I blow out the lamp to use my lights in my house. Two minutes later it goes out again. I light my candle and my lamp again. The power comes again. I wait a couple minutes this time to make sure it’s there to stay, and blow out the candle and lamp again. Almost immediately after that se fue la luz (power went out) yet again! This time I resolved to leave my candle burning no matter what happened. Luckily the craziness of that night with the power doesn’t happen often, but it was after a bunch of rainstorms and something was not working right. Normally in our campo we have power for anywhere from two to six hours at a time before it leaves us for about the same amount of time. Sometimes more, sometimes less. And now I have yet another reason to like the electricity: I have a blender. And not just any old blender. This was a gift from my friend Ney, a Spanish-descended wealthy old man in my community – I think he’s around 90 – who lent me this blender from 1940-something. It’s square! Although it’s missing its lid and only has one speed, it works. My first experiment was to blend guanábana fruit with sugar and a little water to make popsicles in my neighbor’s freezer, an experiment I hope to repeat soon.

Celebrating Easter didn’t end here until Monday, when what seemed like the entire campo went to the beach together. Return to elementary school days: cramming together three to a seat on a school bus to get there. Luckily my seat sharers were skinny! After the priest said the blessing to start us out on the right foot, he declared, Ahora música, má ná! (Now music and no more!) and everybody on the bus cheered… until they heard the religious tunes blasting from the bus’ speakers. Protests abounded and continued the two hours it took to get to the beach. On the way back from the beach was when the priest finally relented to let the people have their say and listen to their reggaeton, salsa, bachata, and merengue. The worst things to happen at the beach were some sunburns and one teen that got really drunk and kept pretending to drown. He would throw himself in the water face down and stay there until the people watching began to get excited. Finally someone threw him into the back of a truck to take him to the hospital, which made him shape up pretty quickly.

Other than the beach, everyone here celebrates holy week by (if not going to the beach or a river) making habichuela con dulce, or a dessert made from beans, batata, milk, a lot of sugar, etc. It’s sort of like the US’ Christmas cookie tradition in that everyone makes a whole lot for the purpose of giving away to all their neighbors, and everyone’s is just a little different from the next person’s. Some have more raisins, some more little cookies on top, some are thicker, some have all the beans processed, and you can eat it hot and fresh or cold afterwards. Now the problem is that it has coconut milk in it, and so sometimes it’s really hard on your stomach. I didn’t have any problems at all the whole week and was even eating it for breakfast cold, until the fateful fourth day of eating it, when something went bad and I had a horrible night afterwards. No more hcd for me… I cogí miedo (got scared!) from then on out.

Mountains climbed: 1

Mules hired: 2

Days spent hiking: 3

Falls on the slippery slope down: at least 20

Rats heard or seen at night: too many to count

Flashlights that died: 3

Torts of cassava eaten: 5 (a LOT)

Baths taken among six people: 3

River sources passed: 1

Swear words used by guide to mules: at least 250

Swear words used by competent females to useless males: a few

Marshmallows roasted around campfires: 0 (next time…)

Days hiking started at 5:00 am: 3

Dagger fights: 1, almost 2

Money spent by each, including transportation to get there: about US$60

Constipated people: 3

Unexpected detours taken: 1 big one

Miles hiked in total: 37 (60K)

Elevation of the peak: 10,? feet (3,038 meters)

Forest fires started: 0

Germans using sticks to cook: 1

Plantains eaten by curious cows: 5

Rainy days: 0!

Most abundant conversation topics among us girls: food, poop, and hiking.

What a fabulous vacation, that I would repeat in a heartbeat… or a year later. We lucked out going with a pure Cibaeño guide straight from the isolated mountains, who eventually shared some of his love stories with us (including how he conseguir-ed, or got, his woman). He also took us on a path much less traveled to get to a beautiful valley. It’s a common side trip taken, but usually on the way up via a different (groomed) path and taking a couple extra days. We took the steepest path invented to get down to it; four endless hours of falls and sliding through the shadeless burned forest, but it was beautiful once we arrived. Pico Duarte is the tallest mountain in the Caribbean and Central America, but the hike really wasn’t hard. It was full of down and up, not just straight up the whole way there. On the second day, when we reached the top, it was absolutely freezing! The wind and cold weather combined made us all wish we had gloves and hats to put on. It was amazing how the three days away from the sound of loud motores zooming by, stares and comments of the men you pass, and heaping plates of rice at lunch were completely refreshing for the soul.

I got back to my project (the lab and all it includes, the English classes, and teacher training) running smoothly, which was a wonderful feeling. My friend Laura inspired me on the hike to set up a program that’s in the works to pair high school students with elementary kids who are having trouble reading, to work with them a couple times a week. Sounds like a cool idea that would be really easy to implement. We’ll see how long it actually takes to get running. My bet: a month at least, due to vacations, nobody will come to the training meetings at first, etc.

I got to go to my first big 15años celebration this past weekend, which was so interesting. These people spend about US$2000, which is quite a bit of money here. Enough to buy a good, bigger motorcycle, as well as a fridge or tv. Wow! It started with a mass, then a procession to the discoteca, where the mc presented everyone. Various rituals always take place (the dad changing the girls sandals to close-toed heels, the group of teens sort of like bridesmaids and groomsmen doing traditional dances, and more), but after all that, there was even more excitement. A couple local reggaetón groups sang (rapped?) and danced. That was followed by several lip-sync acts, which were perhaps even cheesier than the telenovelas (mix between sitcoms and soap operas) so popular here. After the entertainment and before the food, the dancing began. It was similar to our weddings in that everyone lets loose, pulling out all the stops in dance moves (direct result of an increased intake of Brugal and Presidente?). A good time was had by all… and the next morning we got the cake we never ate for breakfast, which just completed the whole experience.

A year under our belts already! The most amazing thing about my group that arrived together is that not one of us has dropped out yet for any reason.

Time is flying, classes are going, and even the teachers have begun to get interested now that we have started to offer some teacher training once a week. I highly doubt the majority of them will ever actually apply their new knowledge, but maybe we can figure out a couple tricks to help them out in their daily lives. We had another club interchange, hosting another volunteer and her kids in our community the other weekend. I got to be host of two volunteers, one teenage girl, and one of the volunteer's dogs. My bed held me, another volunteer, and the dog. In the spare room bed mattress on the floor. How that happened I'm still trying to figure out.

During another med mission down south this past week, I got to see operations on cataracts and prostates, as well as try to hand out very large and ugly glasses to people who needed them. Appearances are so important here that even poverty doesn't stop shame, and some people who were packed off with their glasses that were probably the only pair with the prescription they actually needed you knew were never going to use them. The group of doctors, nurses, and support staff that came were a fun crew of mostly doctor or nurse couples. We dragged one or two out into the streets to have adventures with us, going for runs out of the city and trying some (safe) street food.

Upon arriving at my house this past week, my elderly neighbor told me that I'd missed out on the youth mass this week that they had especially to give prizes. I had won one of the titles: Most Athletic. A direct result of me going with a group to the Virgen de Las Piedras, the long hike to the statue in the cave far away. When we got there the priest proposed doing pushups, which quickly turned into a contest... that I won somehow, beating all the boys with something like 50 pushups in a row. The best part: after arriving and doing the contest, everyone wanted to get back home. Forget about praying or reflecting in this journey! We booked it back.

Rain, rain, and more rain has dominated January. The only thing there is as much of as rain is lodo, or mud. I didn’t believe it was possible, but the nights actually require more than just a sheet: you know it’s chilly when the people here comment that it was a two-sheet night. Even Cajuil had the sniffles.

And if December was a wedding month, January has been a party month. New Year’s, followed by Three Kings Day on the 6th, and then here was our nine day long celebration of fiestas patronales. Every city or pueblo or campo has its patron saint, and celebrates the week leading up to its day with daily mass and lots of going out. It has made for a difficult restarting of – well, everything. Lots of rain combined with cooler weather and parties decreases everybody’s motivation and attendance in all non-social pursuits.

We managed to find a couple hours of sun on a very rainy New Year’s Eve to hit the beach, and a couple friends in Sosua took us in their little motorboat to a secluded and beautiful beach, lined with palm trees and surrounded by striking rock formations. The night was a very wet celebration in Cabarete with a big group of volunteers; either you were dripping from the rain pouring outside or from dancing in the overcrowded sweaty clubs right there on the beach.

From Sosua a group of us went straight to a campo several hours away to translate for a medical mission. This one was a teaching mission, where a large portion of the nurses were earning their master’s at a school in Maine. Every morning we set out to a different area around to set up shop in the church there, and did general health and dental checks. I hadn’t realized that my Spanish really had improved vastly until I had to translate and the Dominicans really gravitated toward us Peace Corps volunteers who not only have the language but even the accent and words they use daily in our speech.

For three of us volunteers, however, the trip came to a halt when one of the big trucks took a spill on the third day. It had been raining all week and was a drizzly morning. In spite of the sprinkling, I had made a running date with one of the nurses and another volunteer for early in the morning, and we ran in the wet and dark. The nurse, Laura, was afraid she wouldn’t be able to keep up, but it was her that was the fast one. After breakfast our half of the group, Team B, took off for our site and eventually reached a church atop a hill with a gorgeous view, overlooking even the ocean. Our truck that I was in back of was a normal pickup, and it had to attempt twice to get up one of the last steep hills before arriving. The other two trucks were big flatbeds, so with their weight could get up more easily. However, as the last truck was making its way up the slippery-rocked slope, it apparently got stuck in third gear and rolled right down, continuing into the heavy brush on the side of the hill, and rolling as it went down. All 12 passengers in back were thrown out. The three in the cab had a couple minor injuries, and the one Peace Corps volunteer in that truck had hurt her thumb. The worst of it all was that Laura, the nurse I’d run with, had such bad injuries that she passed away on the way to the hospital, never even regaining consciousness after the accident. Her poor family – having to get such horrible news about their daughter here for only two weeks to help out – I can’t imagine. It was a traumatic day for everyone involved. The mission apparently continued, but the three of us volunteers in that group were called to the capital and never made it back so far away.

Back in my site, we have started the next round of computer classes, and now have almost all 18 computers functioning. I had to go to the capital to pick up 5 new monitors, and upon their first use back at the lab, the first one we turned on promptly had a mini explosion and never could turn on again. Are exploding monitors common?

Our fiestas patronales have given me a new goal at my site: to change an archaic church rule in my campo. The priest asked me to do a reading in the last day's big mass, but when I showed up (looking wonderful, of course), he told me that I'd have to go home and change. Why? To read, it's a rule that females have to wear skirts. I protested, but to no avail.

The less holy celebrations continued each night at the corner with bands, drinking, and dancing. Once again, like in Semana Cultural, my presence on a couple of nights there was an excuse for multiple males between the ages of 15 and 50, regardless of marital status, to tell me how much they love me. This statement is usually combined with an attempt at convincing me to either stay in the country forever to get married and have kids, or to take my future husband (them) back to the US with them. Depending on the amount of rum they have drinken, it may or may not be accompanied by dancing. Now anybody who missed their chance to declare their crush will have to wait til August, the next time any sort of celebration happens in my campo.

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but one thing is certain – Americans and Dominicans celebrate Christmas very differently, especially taking into account that both share European roots. Things I didn’t miss at all: the snow, the cold, the endless shopping for Christmas presents (sorry friends…), the cold, the Christmas music and decorations starting in November, the cold. Things that were very different for me: not hearing even one American Christmas carol all season, not seeing my family to celebrate together, waking up Christmas morning with the only present around being a little hung over from the night before, eating grapes and apples like they are exotic treats, celebrating Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day, being able to go for a long run or bike ride in shorts and a tank top, and witnessing crazy bottle rocket sort of fireworks being shot off all over the place. I was one step behind on a couple traditions that, despite my endless questions about everything under the sun, never got brought up in conversation. One was that everyone goes out all night long on Christmas Eve eve (the 23rd), and since nobody mentioned anything beforehand, I went to bed early only to wake up various times during the night hearing all the loud music and fireworks, halfway wishing I was there!

Other than Christmas celebrating, we finished our first round of classes in the lab and had a little certificate ceremony before Christmas. Gearing up for round two, of which I will be less a part of to focus on other endeavors.

One of which I accomplished when I got to go to the capital and see Shakira in a concert with a bunch of volunteers, which was an exciting experience. Her hips really don’t lie.

I also finally got to go to my very first Dominican baseball game. My team by default is the Gigantes del Cibao. They are San Francisco de Macorís’ semi-new team that are just winning away. I believe also that there is a Kansas connection – a couple of pitchers are Royals. Other than creaming the other team they were playing, the Gigantes game wasn’t too different from any other baseball game I’ve been to…

For all my friends and family that read this, if I haven’t told you already, Merry Christmas late, and have a wonderful New Year’s celebration. I envision firecrackers playing some sort of role in my own!

I'm just returning home today from being away from my site for a very long time. I figure that, on the bright side, it's good training for when the time comes for me to actually leave my site forever. I am very ready to get home though, and unload my gigantic backpack that grew in size during my weeklong trip.

It all began last Saturday when my club of muchachos from the high school and I set off for another IT volunteer's site to have an interchange and some workshops together, sort of a weekend-long camp. My kids had fundraised to pay for the passage in public transportation, and would stay at the kids' houses there, splitting up at night. In spite of all the bad things that probably could have happened, it was a huge success. We did have a pit stop on our hike up to the high school when we first got there because of the rain, but right away all the boys started getting their hair gel out to make themselves beautiful for the girls in the other club.

I'm pretty sure that many of the activities we did during the weekend would have gotten us in trouble as real public school teachers in the US had we done the same activities there. In addition to the computer repair and photo editing workshops (acceptable), we played a couple of icebreakers that the kids had made which were basically kissing games (on the cheeks, at least), went to the same discoteca at night as all the kids, and showed the movie Scarface to the community and our kids, a fairly gory movie that made me want to cringe several times. At least everyone enjoyed the weekend, and learned a little bit.

After we got back from the camp, I went straight to the capital for a week of our last chunk of language training. Decided to follow that up with a visit out to my friend Jenny in the south, a 4 hour bus ride from the capital. Their town was in the middle of their fiestas patronales, so it was a huge party in the central park every night. I even got persuaded to stay a little longer than I would have for a road race in the town. It was a 7K, and since I live in a different part of the country they wouldn't give me a number, but Jenny ended up winning the female division! She won a washing machine (Dominican style, not like the ones you are picturing in your heads), which is pretty humorous compared to the male prize of a new little motorcycle.

When I stayed with my old host family, the host mom was really sick and it turns out she had pneumonia! They sent home lots of different medicines including a set of three shots to give herself over the next few days. Her daughter asked if I was good at giving them... I had to say that that is not one of my talents! But it was very difficult to communicate with Tita, since she couldn't hear anything. Everything I said to her I had to repeat at a yelling volume, which was a turnoff to talking with her to say the least.

I'm looking forward to going back to my campo where the rain is falling and it's probably about 10 degrees cooler than the South, especially at night. I had to buy a blanket when I went to the Hatian market in Elias Piña with Jenny from her site for those cold nights. Who would have thought that on an island I would be cold sometimes? It's a welcome change from the constant sweating.

Has an entire month really passed since the last update?

Now that we're at the end of November, lots of things have happened this month! But first let me point out that today is the feast day of the patron saint San Andres. The naughty teenagers take to the streets to throw rotton eggs that they've buried a week ago and balloons of flour at passerbys. Which means my plans to take Cajuil to the vet to be fixed in the city have been thwarted yet again: I was heavily warned against entering the city today if I don't want any problems.

This month I had my first visitor from home for about 9 days: Adam, my friend from Casa Juan Diego, came down and got to see my site and a couple beautiful beaches. The most important lesson we learned while hiking in a not-so-crowded national park down in the East: always take a flashlight when hiking alone to a cave! Turns out they are not easy to navigate without light, contrary to popular belief :) While down in Bayahibe we did get the chance to go snorkeling, paying a Dominican with a little boat and snorkeling masks to take us out to some coral (not colorful coral) but full of gorgeous fish. And a jelly fish that got Adam on his stomach. We also got to do some jumping from very tall mangrove roots up in my friend's site of El Rincon, Samana, one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen and complete with the coldest river ever that is full of mangroves.

Our Thanksgiving celebration was in the capital with all the volunteers, followed the next day by the yearly all-volunteer conference. It was a great weekend, made even better by the fact that I got to go with a couple people to do a presentation to the new members the day before. And I did get to meet my blog-reader and new volunteer, Becky from Kansas. Thanksgiving was a wonderful time, that started with a 5K in one of the parks and included sports, lots of food, a pool, a dating game, and dance and domino competitions.

Now that I'm back in my campo, we're finishing up our semester of computer classes and English is going well. The priest is actually one of my students, along with people of all ages again. I think he made one of my little 11 year old boys nervous in class, because Benito broke down crying a couple classes ago. He said he was sick, so I sent him home only to discover that he was running around happily with his friends when he got home. I think I would be sick too, if a very tall and intimidating priest was sitting directly behind me in a new language class!

My animal problems continue, as well. Now that my last group of bees finally got taken away this last week (along with all the honey they'd made in their month of residence), little Cajuil is in heat. She's only just six months old, but is already having male cats come into my house, leaving their marks for me to clean up later and howling the night away. I blame this on my neighbors, who convinced me to not take her to get fixed quite yet, that everybody wants kittens, and that I can take her to get fixed after her first litter. If she makes it through this week unpregnated (although I'm sure already violated), she's going straight to the vet. I'm not going through this again!

In the night, after the day is done, I have eaten and chatted with the neighbor women, I sometimes go over to a house just a little walk away. We play cards, look at the stars, laugh, play different games, etc. It is a house with a mom, dad, grandma, and three kids: two daughters in high school and a middle school age son. The daughters this Sunday were begging me to spend the night -- this is a common phenomena, that everyone wants to give of themselves and share their lives so much with the people they hold dear that girls often want me to even spend the night. Everyone was fighting over whose bed I would sleep in if I ever did spend the night, and the 89 year old grandma (Peto) finally interrupted and said that I would be sleeping with her. I agreed, settling the discussion.

Soon after that, Peto was walking by and just had a big attack of gas, letting multiple farts go. Everyone was sort of laughing, and when I joked around that I didn´t think I would be able to share her bed with her, the family just cracked up. They pointed out that she "suffers" from gas, being elderly along with some medical issues. I think the best part of it all is that to say fart in Spanish is pedo, which sounds VERY similar to the grandma´s name.

Things are going smoothly here as I plan to start English classes with a friend who speaks pretty good English. He is a med student and a community leader. The only hesitation that I had about the classes is the money issue: I wouldn´t mind giving free classes, and he wants to charge. Obviously he should, since he´ll be earning money. And we should charge something to cover our class costs. But he pointed out that one Dominican trait is that they do not value anything they don´t have to work for, and if we offer something very cheap, they will view it as cheap. It is the truth! So we´re charging, and offering "scholarships" (which is really just reducing the price to almost nothing) to the needy who jump through a couple hoops for us. The only thing I am worried about now is that a 65 year old woman signed up for the class, even though it is only for middle and high school students. I pointed out that she would be the only person older than high school age in the class and she is just fine with that! We shall see how it goes.

Excerpts from my computer classes this past week. Keep in mind that the students range from eight years old to about 60. Most are high school age.

When filling in a box that asked for an adjective, about 90 percent of the students in my more advanced Microsoft Office class asked me what an adjective was.

In the beginning classes, we are learning about the keyboard. The first thing I had the students do was to type out the alphabet. Unfortunately, none of the older kids remembered the order or what letters were in it, and I had to write it on the board for them. They never learn an alphabet song as kids!

A couple answers to a question about the "best country" in the world: Europa, Nueva Yol (that's Dominican for New York).

But besides the sometimes humorous and sometimes very frustrating moments in my computer classes, things are going well. The beginners are really noticeably more comfortable doing lots of stuff with the computers, and it's like instant gratification. The only part I am not liking about the classes I give is that I have them in the morning and afternoons on Saturdays, eating up more of my free time.

I finally got rid of the couple swarms of bees, only to have a small swarm arrive to the other side of my house a week ago or so. I haven't bothered the bee guys again, but it's getting to the point where I am going to call soon.

In moments of free time, however, I have been perfecting my tree-climbing skills in the pursuit of sweet oranges, and am planning with a guy in my community a night English class a couple times a week. And I have a running partner who runs harder and farther than me, always pushing me. It's fun to have someone to run with sometimes.

My kitty is getting bigger, but is such a bad bad thing that I don't know what to do. She never likes to go outside because she gets scared of the dogs around, and even the chickens. She is always biting me, and purring while she does it. I'm attempting to teach her to refrain from that bad habit. Maybe someday she'll calm down. I do have a little hope, because sometimes if I get a chance to read at night, I'll be laying on the floor, and she'll curl up on my back, purring away. Oh, Cajuil!

Last Thursday was the week of crazy animals. 1)I noticed a spider living in my bathroom that only has 5 legs. Does that disqualify it as an arachnid? 2)A big swarm of bees that are bravas (angry) moved into my house that afternoon. The majority left but there's still a big family living in between the two stories of my house. I'm going to see if someone can smoke them out, because they come in at night and I don't want to live with pending stings! 3)My worst fear before coming here came true that morning when a dog bit me on my run. It was one of a pack of four sort of wild and mean dogs that always follow me in a certain spot that I have to go by. I was cornered and so walked, and all of a sudden the smaller fat one bit my calf! I looked down after scaring it away and saw that I was bleeding, and so talked to the owners and went home to scrub it for 20 minutes with soap, water, and an old toothbrush (according to our medical handbook, what we have to do after a bite to kill 90% of rabies). Called the medical office and they wanted me to come in for the post-rabies shots, but I convinced them I didn't need to. With no cases of rabies in La Joya for a long time, I'm pretty sure the dog is just mean and not rabid. Actually, I know it's mean. It used to be the dog at my old host family's house a couple years ago and ran away to become part of the dog gang it's now part of.

In my job, things are going better than my time with animals. We had the inauguration of our Telecenter yesterday, and it went well. The center is now open to the community, and we began our classes today. All six classes that we're offering this round filled up to the brim. It's good to be teaching again after so much time out of the classroom.

I took advantage of my last free weekend for a while to meet up with a couple friends in Constanza this weekend. We spent 3 days in the small town which was beautiful: a little town in the mountains that actually got cool in the nights, enough to need a sweatshirt! And in the days the heat was better, not humid at all. They grow a lot of the country's cooler-weather veggies and fruits like cabbage and broccoli, celery and strawberries. We had strawberry milkshakes or slushes every day there! The main reason we went was to hike, which we did lots of. We walked about 12 kilometers to Aguas Blancas, which is the biggest waterfall in the country. (Pictures to be posted soon!) It was such cold water that none of us swam at the base, but enjoyed its beauty instead from outside. We decided to take a bola (ride) back when a big tractor offered us one. On the back attachment, we had to hold on for dear life as the tractor went on the very bumpy and twisting road, and so after about half an hour we got off. The men on their way back to town from work just laughed with us. Another bola came along not too long afterwards that was in the back of a truck, and that was slightly more comfortable and a whole lot less work on our part of bracing ourselves. Another hike we did was more exploring the side of a very steep hill without a path. It was the beginning weekend of that town's fiestas patronales on Saturday night as well. That's when every town adopts a patron saint and celebrates the week each night with famous singers coming in and voting for a queen (teenager who wears an ugly white sort of wedding dress). But we got to see fireworks, danced in the streets, and went on a ferris wheel that was pretty fast. None of us wanted to leave the cool weather or the amazingly cute town at the end of the weekend.

Life is moving along as swiftly as the hot and steady Caribbean sun permits here. The season is changing -- noticeable only by the later sunrise and earlier sunset. Now one has to be home by 7:15 instead of the deep-summer-almost-8:00 nightfall. Also mangoes have stopped dropping on all but the late season trees; avacados are still going strong, though, and the sweet, juicy oranges and lemons are just beginning to ripen. Life is good here in the Cibao, the breadbasket of the country, where there are so many edible roots, fruits, and veggies that the pigs are fattened with the tons of avacados past their peak.

Changes have been rolling through my life as well. More than a week ago I moved out of the host family house and into my new house to live along. Everything was ready but the stove and gas tank, which we still need to fix/hunt down. For the time being I am still eating at my host family house at lunch, giving us an excuse to see each other often. I was surprisingly sad to leave them, even though I only moved about a mile away. My doña still gets teary every time I leave her now. The second day in my house I brought home Cajuil (Cashew), my baby kitty. I think she is about 2 months old. After a day or two of fearing me, she started to enjoy being pet by me and now climbs all over me. This morning I was getting dressed and the next thing I know she was on my shoulder. She is still little and the other day tried to nurse in my armpit. She was not getting anything from there!

I was afraid that after 7 months of living with host families and having everything done for me that I had forgotten how to cook, clean, and do laundry. Still am unsure about the first category but have reaffirmed my ability to do everything else. Laundry here is different from in the states, but thankfully (thanks to my neighbors who let me use their machine) is not hand-washing. It involves an interesting little washing machine that you can only use when there is power. In fact, I was in the middle of my last load when the power went the other day. You haul water to fill up the machine as high as it should go, add your detergent and clothes, and start the 15 minute cycle that agitates the clothes. After a couple rounds of that, you rinse the clothes in a series of buckets. Then you put the clothes in the other opening in the machine to do a sort of spin cycle to wring the water out, and hang the clothes up to dry.

Things are rolling along in work as well. This week was inscriptions for the computer classes I will be giving for the next few months, and almost every slot is taken. Since we are only able to use 10 computers at a time with our solo inversor, classes fill fast. The center bought a new CD burner with our funds and have our opening on Monday. Everyone is very excited for this new development in the community, including the priest who wants to become proficient in computers. We shall see if that miracle comes to pass.

I’ve started to drink coffee. I’m not completely sure how it happened, but one day instead of refusing it, I decided to try the miniature cup somebody handed me. And I liked it. Here people serve the coffee with sugar – a lot – with no milk, and in very small amounts. So that’s the new change in my life!

On my birthday, I thought nothing out of the ordinary would happen. However, I got lots of good phone calls and messages from all of my friends! In church in the morning, the announcements person had everyone clap for my birthday: a little embarrassing. Even more embarrassing was when the priest talked about what a good person I was for a couple minutes. In the evening, one of my high school kids from the computer club had me come over to borrow my camera, and he’d arranged a surprise party for me with the high school kids from the area! My first surprise party! There was dancing, good music, a fun game, and an awesome cake. And people my own age showed up too, which was fun. What started out as a rainy and inside kind of day turned out to be just wonderful.

Computer camp is in full swing in La Joya. I decided that the kids in my computer club hadn’t gotten the whole summer on the computers, and since we aren’t opening up the center til mid-September, I wanted to give them sort of an intense and fun intro to computers. Each day we have a different theme, such as games, or networking, or PowerPoint, or Photoshop. It’s very fun, and every day last week when we ended at noon we played Capture the Flag in the high school grounds. Hembras vs. Varones (Girls vs. Boys). It’s turned into a huge competition, with a little bit of trickery going on. At least I can be satisfied that if I never make any other differences here in the DR, I will have introduced an awesome game to a good set of people to pass it on :)

This past week was our three-month IST, or in-service training. Which meant almost a whole week in the capital (not my favorite spot for the heat, trash, size, and expensiveness). And it meant that we spent three of those days with project partners that we invited to the training, to help us present our community diagnostics and to collaborate to make a year plan. I got pretty enthused about our year plan, and now all we need is for the electricity to be able to enter our center. I thought everything had been resolved when the guys put the inversor in our lab, but it turned out the electricity is entering the liceo (high school) too strongly, and so it's too dangerous to use the inversor or computers still. So we're still immobilized, and have to be patient and wait for it to get taken care of. Waiting is a fact of life here!

My most exciting news from the past couple of weeks is that I think I've found a house. Rather, the priest has found it for me. It's an old casa de campo that people built to get out of the city and hang out with family for a while, and the priest is always over at the neighbor's house who owns it. It's very cute and just needs some things to be taken care of, such as adding a couple doors, repairing one, hooking up the light, and fixing the water situation so that I don't have to haul it (lucky me!). If everything goes even slowly, I could be moving in at the end of this month or the beginning of September. And the two older women who live right next door are sisters who have a great big organic garden, along with the rest of their land. They do have pigs, but I've decided it's my fate to live by those horrible animals. Oh, and one lady is going to give me one of her kittens instead of drowning it, so I'll have a friend and something to eat the mice! Which will be good: right now where I'm living there's a mouse living in my room, I'm pretty sure. Because whenever I wake up in the morning, there's always mouse poop on top of my mosquitero -- at least it's not scampering all over my body while I'm sleeping, though.

While we were in the capital, some of us girls went shopping the last afternoon, and I ended up getting a second pair of Dominican jeans. This means that the jeans are not only not baggy like so many American jeans are, but you have to really work to get them on. With these and all my other pants and skirts that I had to get majorly taken in, I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe! Let's just hope that avacado season right now doesn't engordarme (fatten me up) too much so that I can continue to fit into all of my smaller clothes now. . . I so far have not gained anything and eat lots of avacado every night for dinner: think an entire small one. Some avacados from our trees are HUGE, almost as big as a child's head! It's even better than mango season, I think.

Camp is all over, and was a huge success! Around 70 kids came each day. We had environmental education activities that were especially successful in small groups, and did other fun activities like sports, big races, a camp game of Capture the Flag, and a Casino Night. We ended the camp with a dance, and after a rousing round of limbo, we asked the kids if they wanted to have a dance competition. Everyone did, and started chanting, “Reggae, reggae, reggae!” which is the affectionate name here for reggaeton music. We gave in and the kids danced off to reggaeton for about three minutes, until the dancing got too provocative for their young eyes and bodies, and we switched to good healthy merengue.

The helpers were amazing counselors. Everyone here is used to entertaining kids from birth, so they were all naturals with their groups of muchachos. The only problems we had were: 1. Older kids tried to sneak into the camp halfway through each day. 2. After making skits about saving the environment and the negative effects of throwing trash anywhere, the kids threw their popsicle wrappers all over the ground. 3. On Thursday about five counselors just didn’t show up for various reasons; out of ten counselors, that’s a lot! Luckily we had a couple extra helpers come that day, so things worked out just fine. All the kids wanted the camp to be a month long, but I told them we couldn’t do that with volunteer counselors. However, maybe next summer we can start a camp where the counselors actually get paid, and have it be longer. The lesson we did learn from doing the camp is that there is a need for organized activities for kids here. The only organized activities here are for teenagers in the church youth groups. Other than that, there is nothing – no sports, no hang out spots, no scout troops, etc.

Good news is that the secretary of education actually looked for and found a used inversor for our computer lab that they installed yesterday. So I’ll actually have a job when my community diagnostic time ends, which is good for everyone. My stomach is also much better for some unknown reason, although I may still get a stool sample! We (Ambrosia and I) made it to the beach this weekend up north in Cabarete to get together with a group of environmental volunteers there. Cabarete was much farther than expected, and I’m not sure if it was worth the trip: four hours each way in different guaguas. It was supposed to have a great nightlife, but was just full of sunburned tourists who weren’t dancing except to some bad techno music. It’s the windsurfing beach of the island, and it was cool to see all the windsurfers during the day, but definitely wasn’t the most beautiful beach at all!

I had a moment of vergüenza (embarrassment) the other day when I was talking to my camp counselors. It was raining and the sun was out, and a counselor commented that “Se está casando una bruja,” or that a witch is getting married. I wanted to say that we say in English sometimes that the devil is beating his wife (thanks, Dad, for passing down that wonderful saying) but what came out of my mouth was not the word golpeando, or beating, but “Decimos allá que el Diablo está pegando a su esposa,” which can be interpreted as something entirely different than beating. Just use your imaginations if you don’t speak Spanish!

I have been considering my methods for a time now of accepting various glasses of juice in all sorts of different houses without any questions. The problem is that when you go to visit a house here, they offer coffee, soda, or juice to almost any special guest. I don’t drink either of the first two, and already feel difficult enough without any more comments, and so accept the juice. That would be fine, except for the fact that I’ve discovered through my community diagnostic that almost every family drinks not bottled or boiled water, but rainwater. Or “what God sends us,” as most put it.

Which leads to my current situation: I think I’m sick with an amoeba. And everyone that knows about my diarrhea and occasional stomach aches which arrived over a week ago has agreed that I do as well. Luckily I can pretty easily control the symptoms that I just mentioned by a bland diet and not much oil (ok, that’s sort of hard here with my oil-happy family cooking for me). But if I want to know for sure that I do have this parasite and get it out of my system, I have to trek on down to the capital and give a couple poop samples and then wait for them to get analyzed. At the current moment, I prefer trying the home remedy teas and lemon water, and the next time I make it down to the capital I can get it checked out. Yuck. At least I’m never all alone, right?

I’m hoping and wishing and praying with all my might that the camp we’re having next week goes off well. There are about 65 kids signed up. We’ve had our counselor training sessions, and they’re excited and prepared. The only real problem that we are encountering is that I budgeted just a couple pesos per kid per day for water and bread for a little snack, since we’re just meeting in the morning till noon. I’ve gotten lots of little comments about how horrible it is to make the children FAST, but never paid much attention to the comments until Monday when all ten counselors decided that it would not work to just give bread and water, and put a juice-making schedule together. The reason: the kids will not come back after the first day if we don’t give them something better! Then they gave me a Dominican saying that “Comer es primero,” which is roughly in English “Eating comes first.” I never realized it was such a serious situation I’d gotten us into until that moment when the counselors confronted me!

I’m still house-hunting here to hopefully move out in the first part of August. It’s harder than expected! There are quite a few empty houses around, but finding a house with close neighbors, good neighbors, and that isn’t too big or falling apart at the seams is a different question. I have a couple small leads, including a house in the little street right next to the church. Which, although there are always a certain type of crazies associated with any church, being so close could keep away a different type of crazy here in town.

Fundraising for our stolen inversores is under way, with the help of my club of kids who are super interested in computers. They're helping me with my community diagnostics and now with fundraising, and are just the best bunch of high schoolers. I feel bad for them, because they just want to do computer stuff, and we can't yet.

The fundraiser they chose to do was a peaje, which is like the Dominican version of the firefighters holding boots at intersections. We had to jump through a million hoops to get permission to do the peaje to begin with, and then we made some signs telling the cause and got a rope and money pouch together. All Saturday we stood out on the highway that leads into the city at a key shady location, and stopped cars to get them to give us money. I had no idea why the fundraiser sounded so appealing to these kids, but it turned out well, and we made quite a bit of money. One guy even gave us an American dollar :) The trick to the peaje is that you have to put the rope down when motorcycles are coming, because we didn't want to create any injuries, and it took lots of care since the majority of vehicles are motores! The only low point was the dust, that kicked up quite a bit since they're redoing the highway, and when the heavy afternoon rain came and ruined all our signs. The kids had fun, though, and want to do another one soon!

We'll see what surprises are awaiting me when I get back to my home from being in the capital last night and today. Ambrosia and I came in to get prescriptions filled and run other errands, and are headed back soon. But last time we went to the beach, I got back and knew that somebody had slept in my bed. Which is not a big deal, but then when I was putting up my mosquitero later that night, I found under the bed a vasinilla (sp?), or Dominican chamber pot, that was full to the brim of pee. I knew it was my host mom's -- she's the only one that still uses one instead of walking to the bathroom (I know because our walls don't go to the ceilings, and you can hear any little noise from any of the rooms). I was a little grossed out and sort of upset, but decided that I would just laugh it off and sort of smiled and walked out and through the living room past the mom and her son, saying, "I found a surprise under my bed!" The host mom, instead of laughing along with me, tried to say that it was her granddaugher and that she must have done it when she was making the bed (that I had already made?). That was more annoying that she tried to lie to me instead of just mentioning she'd slept in my bed! But only a few more weeks there. . . banking on the hope that I'll find a house soon.

Just now I am recovering from a week of parties, and here tomorrow is the 4th of July. Obviously not such a widely-celebrated holiday here in the Dominican Republic, but a few of us are getting together a couple of pueblos over to celebrate in some yet-to-be-determined American way. The parties I went to last week varied from a surprise birthday party to an elementary school teacher trip to a big pool in Santiago – complete with water slides! – to the big school year end bash of all the teachers in the district. That party was perhaps the most fun, and it was definitely the most dancing. It ran from before 11 in the morning until 6 in the afternoon, with the dancing beginning before noon. I got complimented on my dancing, even though I dance like a normal person as far as I can tell, and a few people commented that I don’t dance like an American. That’s good, I suppose! Now I just need to brush up on my salsa to add to the merengue and bachata ever present, be it in clubs, colmados, or on the radio. I was reflecting the other day after my run how much I’ve grown to love dancing merengue and bachata for some reason, and how sad it would be if I ever live somewhere that I can’t dance them when I’m old and gray. Probably not the most pressing issue I should be worrying about, but there you have it.

The pigs have done it again. Why is it they are so gross yet so fascinating? Yesterday a neighbor came over, concerned about a missing pig some of our family was keeping an eye out for. He thought it might have fallen down a hole, and the hole turned out to be a huge deep pit behind the pigpen that is the drainage ditch for all the pig waste, and is covered pretty well with wood and sticks. Sure enough, the four-footed escapee had somehow fallen into the pit and was paddling around in the muck. It miraculously hadn’t drowned, and its white eyes looked up at us, wondering what was happening. After we stood around for a while thinking about what to do, the inevitable happened: one of the guys got the ladder out and descended into the pit. Into the muck. The poo. The slime. The disgustingness. He changed right before going down into a newly-made pair of cutoff shorts from pants of a skinnier person, which was fairly hilarious, but I just felt too bad for the guy. All the other men grabbed parts of the rope that David had tied around the pig to pull it out, and on the first try came really close to choking the poor thing. All this time I was thanking the Lord for the inflexible gender roles in this country that dictated that men would fix this horrible situation, and it was completely acceptable for me to be present without helping! The second pull was the charm, and that squealing pig was pulled out with the strength of five men. In my opinion, this happenstance was just one more reason that pigs are not worth the effort and smell.

Pig-selling and slaughtering time is here. The other day the truck pulled up to help cart the pigs away that my little brother here wanted to sell, and all morning long the pigs were squealing like crazy as they were carried out to the truck. Understandable since some of the guys carried the fat things by the ears. Then today my family went and killed one of the ones they’d kept around to eat tonight at a birthday celebration. I’m glad I’m a vegetarian.

This past week has been an adventure. I was invited to go walk to the much-talked-about Casa de las Piedras, or Virgen de las Piedras. One of the youth motivators in church from the next community over invited me, and he told me there were several other people going along. Most people in my community have been at some point, and I was interested in seeing what all the fuss was about, so I agreed to go. We left at 6:00 am, and it turned out to be only me, the leader guy, and the semi-crazy gardener from the church, Benito. It was actually a really good time, and it turned out to be a 20 km round trip, which is about 13 miles. My butt is still sore from when we came back on steep downhill inclines through the cacao. The place we visited was a church in the middle of nowhere, with some cave-like rocks and a place carved out for a statue of the Virgen Mary. It was in the middle of lots of lush vegetation and really beautiful. We meditated and said a rosary, rested a bit, and found some sweet lemons to snack on before heading back. I had to share my water bottle with the two guys that had not thought to bring water (who doesn’t bring water on a 13 mile hike??), which did not make me happy. But definitely a worthwhile trip.

Last Saturday I tagged along to an English class at one of the institutes that everyone seems to go to in the city. My neighbor was the person that had invited me, but after arriving the director dragged me around to all the classes to have them practice some English with me. After the director found out I had graduated in language education, he asked if I would be interested in doing some teacher training… and I agreed, figuring that it was for the better of education even though for a for-profit organization! Our first session was Friday afternoon, and another American was there who was from Minnesota and visiting her fiancé for a month or so. She studies Spanish in grad school, and it turned out that she had done the Costa Rica study abroad program through KU, and knows several of the same people that went to school with me – Melissa Hartnett, for one. Small world!

This weekend I headed out to help Iris, another IT volunteer. Between her, Laura, and me, we pimped out her lab with some fun games and got it all ready for the grand opening with slide shows of her community and the ads for classes all over. Her site is a good site, but I’ve decided that since Dominicans in general are very likeable and fun people, it would be hard to find a bad site. We danced a little bachata Saturday afternoon in front of her colmado, which I had been craving to do for some reason lately! Like always, it was fun to see other volunteers. Iris did have her little guy friends look for some horses for us to ride down through the cacao and to the river close by her house, and we all had trouble jumping onto the horses – it is hard to get on without stirrups or anything to grab on to. On the ride back in the guagua to Macoris, I was in the same seat of a pickup as 3 very heavy, if not obese, adults, and sat sideways to accomodate them. After 40 minutes or so, my left leg was so asleep that I lost my flip flop as I got out and almost fell over from having no feeling in the leg. But I survived.

It was reunion time two weekends ago, when several of us from our group came together in the capital to share stories and check mail! Yes, we are like campers, eagerly anticipating any mail that might have happened to come our way in the last month. My favorites this time were some crossword puzzles cut out of newspapers and sesame sticks. . . although I’m certainly not lacking for anything here at all! (Well, besides clothes that don’t stretch out and get holes in the wash, but nothing a trip to a border market can’t fix.) In the news of everyone, it turns out that one of our friends that had been sick during our swearing-in weekend had been sick with dengue, a rough and not-so-preventable illness you get from mosquitoes.

En route to Santo Domingo, our guagua got a flat tire. We all piled out for the driver and cobrador (money-taker) to fix it. We were on the side of the highway, far from any town and only close to a bunch of trees. Ambrosia, the volunteer really close to me, had had something explode in her bag, and was trying to wash it off with her water bottle, when somebody pointed her to a little path in the woods that led to a llave (faucet of water). How did they know it was there? Other people immediately began to climb trees to get little fruits called limoncillos that they shared with everybody on the bus, and I think some other people found a mango tree that had a couple ripe ones on it. It’s mango season right now; only the beginning here in the north with the little stringy mangos beginning to drop, but going strong in the south with big red sweet mangos already ripening. My friends in the south get presents of huge bags of mangos almost daily! Ambrosia and I from the north bought a couple of the good mangos in the capital, and right now I’m wishing that I had brought a bunch back for the family.

A small group of us headed out the next day to Bayahibe, a small little beach town near La Romana, and found a great hotel for about 300 pesos each – about $10US. That’s more than we wanted to pay, but it was really nice and included towels to use at the beach, an air conditioning unit, and hot water! I took my first heated shower in four months while we were there, which was pretty nice. The beach was beautiful and there were more waves than some other beaches we’ve visited. We met an Italian at a gelato place, and it turns out that in the next little town over, there’s a big Italian and European population that has settled there. We danced the night away in a disco nearby, and didn’t get home until almost 5 in the morning – later than I’ve stayed out in a long time! And there really were a lot of Europeans there, including a Serbian who tried to talk to me for a while since he didn’t speak any Spanish at all. The weekend was fabulous and a good little break from our sites and going to bed at 10 or earlier every night.

Back in La Joya, school is out for the summer, and everyone got their grades this Friday. This past Thursday was a holiday – Corpus Christi – that we celebrated with a walk at 5:00 am up to the church on the hill, a couple miles worth of walking. I was surprised at how many people showed up.

One of our chickens has decided that she really likes my room, and if I don’t shut my door, I invariably find either her or her egg laid in my zip-up little closet. Even if I almost zip my closet up all the way, she flies onto my bed and from there can sort of undo the closet. She isn’t afraid of me, either, when I shoo her out. Eggs in my clothes are a surprise that I could do without!

Oh, and a week or so ago, a girl was supposedly possessed by demons or the devil. Luckily a big group prayed over her in a little ceremony in her house so the demons have been exorcised. Some have theorized that it could have something to do with the girl’s recent marriage (she’s 14). I asked how everybody knew she was possessed, and everybody sort of skirted my question, saying she was acting weird. It’s just one of those mysteries, I suppose.